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How to Capture and Keep Your Video Audience ’s Attention

Getting people to watch your video is only half the battle. Once you get them to watch, you need to have engaging content to keep them there.

Usually, companies want to know how many people are watching their videos, which is important, but not as important as who is watching your video. Something else to make sure you are aware of is knowing at what point in your video they stop watching. If you know this, you can know what parts of your video are capturing their attention and which parts are losing them.

Your video is broken into 3 obvious parts: the beginning, middle, and end. The beginning is key to setting the tone and captivating your audience. If you lose your viewers at the very start, most of your video’s message will never be seen.

To capture your audience at the outset, it’s important to get to the point as quickly as possible. It is a good idea to start off with a quick hook, such as a short sketch, fact, or question to reel them in. However, if you take too long to set the stage for the action, your audience will be gone before the action begins.

Blurry visuals, garbled audio, and other technical problems are turn-offs right off the bat. I recommend hiring a video production company to ensure that your video has the proper elements of story and sequence.

Once you’ve made it past the “beginning,” you’re ready to present the gist of your message. How do you do that in a captivating way? Corporate videos often make the common mistake of selling the company primarily using “we” centered language. For example: “We pride ourselves on making a high-quality cake-baking oven.” Companies sometimes get so excited about the chance to sell themselves that they are less effective at selling what is most important – the product. As a result of this problem, Wistia found that videos up to 3 minutes in length lost about 50 to 60 percent of their audience during the middle.

To keep this from happening, keep the video “you”-centered, and by “you”, I mean the audience. Do this by focusing on what the audience can gain from the product. For example: “You can bake a cake with great taste and no mess with this high-quality cake-baking oven.”

Using “you” language goes hand in hand with the concept of highlighting benefits rather than just features. Features are the components your product offers – for example, photos, instant messaging and groups are all features of Facebook.

These alone, however, do not explain how you can have a better and happier social life because of Facebook.

Because of this, it is necessary to connect the features to direct benefits, such as sharing special life moments with friends, staying in touch with friends from all over the world, and networking with people who share common interests.

Once you’ve captured your audience, it is also important to keep them watching until the very end. You may have given a fantastic sales pitch, but if you lose your viewers right before the end of the video, they won’t know what they should do with the information, whether it be to pick up the phone to order, visit the company’s website, or simply spread the word.

Keep your audience by avoiding common conclusion lead-ins such as “in conclusion,” “to summarize” and “overall.” These cliche phrases will make your audience assume (correctly) that everything to follow will just repeat what has already been said; which in their minds means, “Why keeping watching?” As a general rule, avoid repeating exactly what you just said or, if it is necessary to repeat an idea, present it in a new, exciting way.

Jayson Duncan is an expert in Video Marketing. Jayson is a filmmaker and the Chief Storyteller of the video production agency Miller Farm Media. Miller Farm Media is an Orange County, California-based video marketing, advertising, and story first video production company that works with small businesses and Fortune 50 companies to help them create videos that inspire, educate, and entertain with strategies to get more likes shares and views. In his spare time, Jayson enjoys cars, playing his guitar, songwriting, and spending time with his wife, Gretchin and son, Miller.

About Jayson Duncan

Jayson Duncan is an expert in Video Marketing. Jayson is a filmmaker and the Chief Storyteller of the video production agency Miller Farm Media. Miller Farm Media is an Orange County, California-based video marketing, advertising, and story first video production company that works with small businesses and Fortune 50 companies to help them create videos that inspire, educate, and entertain with strategies to get more likes shares and views. In his spare time, Jayson enjoys cars, playing his guitar, songwriting, and spending time with his wife, Gretchin and son, Miller.

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Neal Schaffer is a leader in helping educate executives and professionals on social media as well as in implementing successful social media strategies for businesses. CEO of the social media agency PDCA Social, social media educator at Rutgers University and the Irish Management Institute, social media keynote speaker who has spoken at hundreds of events on four continents, and author of three social media books, Neal is a true innovator and influencer in the growing world of social media for business.